I now think about friends I don’t check up on regularly enough…could any of them have even a fraction of the sadness that led her to do this? Please don’t wait for such a situation to happen to you to ask the same question. Reach out to people, today. Do you know your neighbors? Loneliness is pervasive and all the time we spend on facebook, etc. doesn’t mean anything to a big group of people, especially those who are older. Say hi, call, or visit someone today.
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I stumbled across a bunch of faux vegetarian meats at the local Asian grocery store–who knew? I bought a roll of something called ‘Shamwell Vegetarian Ham’ from a company called vegeUSA. This stuff’s pretty good, made ’sham salad’ and tried a hash that was very satisfying, here goes.
1 medium sized potato, quartered1/3 medium onion (I used Vidalia), chopped
2 ’slices’ Sham, cubed
Nutritional Yeast Flakes
Thyme Cook the potatoes in a covered skillet with 1/2-1 inch of water, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool a bit and cut into hash sized pieces. Add some oil to the skillet and cook the onions, adding the potatoes and sham after a minute or so. Cook until it looks like hash, and add thyme and nutritional yeast to taste. Go easy on added salt as the sham is salty. Mix and eat, serves one. I meant to add some tofu but forgot–feel free to try (& post). Welcome to posterous cooking!
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I can’t say enough good about this stuff…still think it should rebranded as ‘tasty healthy stuff.’
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I thought I’d have a hard time giving up eggs, butter, and cheese at home. Not so much! There are many good subs for each. Sister Dede turned me on to a book called The Uncheese Cookbook which is awesome, and I adapted their recipe for ‘Grilled Cheez’ to make fake quesadillas, or crazydillas as they are known in the Canady household. The key is the nutritional yeast flakes—note it doesn’t take a large quantity—I suggest buying some in the bulk section of your crunchy natural foods stores (ours is Henry’s) and checking them out. They’re uber versatile as a cheese substitute.
1 1/3 c. water
½ c. roasted (or grilled-I used my Geo. Foreman Grill) red peppers
1/3 oats
¼ c. nutritional yeast flakes
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp garlic or onion powder, or a mixture of both (I suppose you could use fresh, haven’t tried)
¼ tsp dill
¼ tsp coriander
¼ tsp dried mustard
¼ tsp paprika
Flour tortillas
Put all ingredients except tortillas into a blender and blend until mixture is as liquefied as possible, likely for a full minute. Pour mixture into a saucepan and heat on a low heat until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat, allow to cool if needed, and spread a thin layer on the tortilla. Fold in half and heat on skillet until the tortilla is slightly browned. Makes about 8 small (soft taco sized tortilla) low fat crazydillas. Enjoy with salsa, guac, or vegan sour cream!
This recipe isn’t rocket science. I am a BIG carbohydrate fan and recently had all the makin’s for burritos with no tortillas in the house. The trick to a burrito bowl is to make sure it is tasty enough to satisfy you without the tortilla. Here’s what I did, feel free to substitute, we’ve all had plenty burritos to know what goes in ‘em!
Black beans, cooked or cannedNutritional yeast flakes
Rice, cooked
Tomatoes or salsa
Onions, grilled
A lil kick–sriracha sauce, hot peppers, if needed
Chopped cilantro or lettuce Mash the beans (I use a potato masher) and add about a quarter of the amount of nutritional yeast flakes and stir to mix (e.g. 0.5 c. for 2 c. beans–or to taste). This will lend a cheesy taste to the beans and add amino acids (protein) and vitamin B12. If you like, you can also add more flavor to the beans with a lil garlic or cumin. To assemble the bowl, add approx 0.5 c. each rice and beans (warm if needed), and add the other ingredients on top. Enjoy with a beer as I did
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Sesame Street started when I was at the ‘prime viewing age’ of 1. Fantastic show for kids and adults. What do I remember most? The urban, racially diverse scenes of every day life. I still think about it sometimes around 10 a.m. if I’m out walking. Of course it’s always been very educational. Congrats Sesame Street! You’ve made an impact on us, and we should all continue to support our local PBS station.
]]>Got an invitation to promote the San Diego Opera in the spring–this blog’s too funny!
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This bread is the bomb, and the flax seed adds omega fatty acids and fiber. The key to making bread in a bread machine is to check it shortly after you start it to make sure the dough is in a ball that is being bounced around the chamber. There should be no flour stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add extra flour or liquid if it’s too soupy or dry, respectively.
Ingredients
2 1/3 c. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
¼ c. oats
½ c milk (rice or coconut, could likely use soy)
½ c. water
1 1/3 tsp. yeast
1/3 c. ground flax seed (can subs. Flour)
Add sugar to milk and water and microwave for 30 sec. Stir to dissolve sugar, then add yeast to top and let sit. Add all other ingredients to bread machine, then add liquid mixture. Basic setting. Check a few minutes after it has started and adjust as described.
You can still enjoy comfort foods as a vegan! It won’t taste exactly the same, but I think the comfort level is at 11.
Ingredients
1 lg or 2 sm carrots
1/2 lg or whole small onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp Oil
Few stalks celery or bok choy
1/3 block firm tofu
1 Zucchini
Vegetarian ‘chicken’ stock, vegetable stock, or nutritional yeast flakes, to taste
Thyme, to taste
1-2 Bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut carrots and onions into soup sized pieces–smaller always cooks faster. Mince garlic and add all to soup pan with oil–saute until onion translucent. Add water (or stock)–you’ll have to eyeball it–just don’t add too much. Add celery/bok choy, tofu, and seasonings. Cook for 20 mins or until it starts to look like soup. To make the Noodls, either cut the zucchini lengthwise into noodly size pieces, or use a spiral noodle cutter thingy. Add the Noodls, adjust water/seasonings as needed, cook for 5 more mins, and enjoy! Just a note that you can definitely find/use vegan noodles (most except egg noodles are vegan), I am just trying to be clever here
Posted via email from Mary Canady’s (im)posterous
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